Page 58 of Alice Carver Manifests Her Perfect Life
But Matthew Lloyd didn’t even look up from the paper. ‘Nah,’ he said. ‘Ebba doesn’t eat croissants.’
‘Well, who doesn’t eat croissants,’ I huffed under my breath, fetching the milk from the fridge.
‘People following a Paleo diet,’ said Matthew calmly. ‘Like you.’
‘Well, yes, of course. If she’s Paleo like me, that makes sense.’
‘Notthatlike you,’ said Matthew. ‘She actually does follow a Paleo diet.’
Astrid laughed.
I retrieved a spoon and slammed the drawer shut, but because it’s soft-close it didn’t make a sound. Normally I love the soft-close. ‘Actually, I do follow it quite strictly,’ I said, carefully measuring a level teaspoon sugar into my coffee. ‘I tend to stick to grains, nuts and berries for my breakfast.’
Matthew looked briefly up, stared at me so intently that my hand wobbled and I spilled my coffee, then returned to his paper. ‘You’re absolutely right, Alice,’ he said. ‘What self-respecting caveperson didn’t sit down to Jordans Country Crisp and a flat white on a Saturday morning? By the way, you’ve got coffee all down your top.’
God, that man makes my blood boil.
Astrid’s phone started buzzing. I glanced over surreptitiously from where I was stationed by the coffee machine, and saw Aziz’s name flash up on the screen. I also saw Astrid look at her phone, pause and then turn it over.
‘Aren’t you going to answer that?’ I said pointedly. ‘Might be important? What if it’s Aziz?’
‘It’s not,’ lied Astrid, pulling back her chair, decisively. ‘So, Matthew,’ she said. ‘What shall we do today?’
I felt so bothered by the whole situation that I ended up taking my breakfast back up here to my room. What is Astrid playing at? I have no idea why she’s ignoring Aziz, and as much as I know that Aziz and Matthew are friends too, it doesn’t feel right Matthew being here on his own with Astrid, when Astrid’s treating Aziz like this.
Maybe the solution is to make sure that Matthewisn’ton his own with Astrid… ?
Action: I shall spend this weekend selflessly protecting my sister’s virtue, by being a ‘chaperone’ in the vein ofLittle Women. (Or, as we’d say today, a ‘cockblock’.)
I am letting go of:
Matthew’s childish attempts to rile me. Jordans Country Crisp is wholegrain and it really clearly says on the package ‘tasty by Nature’. Plus I had it with soya milk.
Guide Post™
The tiny grass seed manifests a green blade,
The humble acorn manifests the great oak tree,
The young stream manifests a river, which manifests a sea,
Look to Mother Nature and manifest all you want to be.
Date: Saturday 14 JanuaryTime: 3.15pm
My thoughts and reflections:
I spent most of the rest of the morning downstairs in the sitting room, bored, whilst Astrid and Matthew worked. She had her nose in a textbook entitledAn Introduction to Pathology, and he was pacing, and occasionally scribbling on bits of paper, and looking generally pensive. I put on some music and Astrid told me to turn it off; I tried chatting and Astrid told me to be quiet; I had a go at that new dance move on TikTok that everyone’s recording themselves doing – the Cossack one – and Astrid said, ‘For goodness sake,’ and left to go and work in the office.
Matthew said, ‘Just me and you now, Alice. Why don’t you show me some more of that lovely dancing?’ And raised his eyebrows suggestively. But before I could ask what he meant, he put on these massive noise-cancelling over-the-ear Bang & Olufsen headphones (which I assume Ebba bought him because they hardly go with his messy look) and opened his laptop: he didn’t even blink when I told him to piss off. As Astrid wasn’t in the room anymore, I decided it was safe for me to go back up to my room and have some Me Time.
I had a look at my visualisation board (I think you can really tell I got an A in GCSE Art) and did a bit of manifesting.Guy Carmichael will ask me out on a date. Guy Carmichael willask me out on a date.And then, because I’m an initiative-taker, I decided to try on my new limited-edition H&M Guy-Carmichael-date outfit, and felt really glad that I’d stretched to the boots as well as the sequinned trousers because it all went together so well, and when you added it up, was only a fraction of the cost I’d have spent at Gucci. Sorry. Correction. A fraction of the cost Iwillbe spending at Gucci because I’m inviting abundance into my life. I experimented with a bit of silver eyeshadow and frosted lipstick, looked in the mirror and really visualised myself getting very lucky.
And I was visioning me, in the Mandrake bathrooms, with their black walls and designer sinks, and hearing the door swing open and footsteps behind me, and then Guy’s clipped husk in my ear saying,Christ alive, I can’t contain myself, Alice – you exude raw sexuality and make models like Ebba look quite frumpy, truth be told. And then me saying,We don’t need to put down other women to make me feel better, Guy.Even smug ones like Ebba. And he’d say,God, you’re not only stunning but principled too. Fuck I respect you. And—
‘Alice,’ bellowed Astrid, interrupting my manifesting. ‘We’re going out. See you later.’
Shit. I was meant to be chaperoning.
